


Beneath: Gravitation

by duointherain



Series: Beneath [8]
Category: Gravitation, Gundam Wing
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-01-02 07:16:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21157742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duointherain/pseuds/duointherain
Summary: Just slice of life... Duo, Relena, and a friend reading Gravitation... Heero has a misunderstanding





	1. Chapter 1

Beneath: Gravitation  
by duointherain

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing  
Notes: Vice-Minister Darlian has no first name >< so I made one up. 

Maureen Darlian stood outside her daughter’s room. Head tilted back, she took a long slow breath. Relena had always been such a quiet and dignified child. Perfect grades and not a single detention had preceded Duo. Duo Maxwell Darlian had come with several detentions and two D’s, but Relena was much happier. 

This was all Henry’s fault, somehow, Maureen laid it all at her dead husband’s feet. He’d wanted a son too. He’d wanted to take both Relena and Milliardo, but it just hadn’t been safe. She pinched the bridge of her nose, squared her shoulders, just as a wave of laughter and giggling rolled over. Relena had never needed a bedtime before! The decision to adopt Duo had happened so quickly. 

She knew she never should have had access to prison video of Duo in solitary crying himself to sleep. The things she knew she shouldn’t have done, had, thought, there were just too many to count. Henry had always been the law-abiding one of them and look what that got him.

With a quick knock on the door, she opened it and came to a sudden stop. Relena sat on the floor, her back to her bed. Duo sat to her right, wearing just his boxers and a pair of iridescent kitty years on his head, and the remnants of make up his face. There was another girl to Relena’s left. The new girl looked up from the manga she was reading, big dark eyes wide and a little awestruck as she kind of tried to hide behind the book. She wore a cute pink nightgown with matching kitty ears. 

Relena sat there between them, wearing Duo’s hoodie and whiskers drawn on her cheeks. Stacks of books surrounded them. Very faint Japanese music played, but not loud enough to cover the chattering and giggling. 

“Hello, kittens,” Maureen said, arms crossing her chest. “I didn’t realize we were having a sleepover on a Wednesday.” 

“Well,” Relena said, book disappearing behind her back. “Shelly came over to study and we just well, we were up a little late, and I asked her if she could stay. Her parents are out of town this week and it just seemed like a good thing to offer. I didn’t think you’d mind.”

“If it weren’t two am and no one was asleep I probably wouldn’t have,” Maureen allowed. “What are you reading?”

“Gravitation,” Duo nearly whispered. 

“Those don’t look like books about Newton.” 

“Uh,” Duo said, drawing the word out. “It’s a Japanese story, a love story.” 

“I see,” Maureen said. “And how are you three planning on getting up in four hours?”

Relena and Shelly scrambled for their phones to check the time. “It’s not that late!” Relena gasped. 

Shelly stared at her phone and started to cry.

Maureen arched her eyebrows, glaring at Duo. “You knew what time it was.”

“Yeh.” He said before scratching the back of his neck. 

“And just how did you plan on making it through school today?”

“Cocaine?”

“Uh uh,” Maureen said, holding out her hand. “Give it to me. There will be no cocaine.”

Duo’s thought process was hardly private, playing across his face like an intense k drama. 

Maureen held up a finger, shaking it. “No. Go get it. Promise me there will be no more cocaine without permission.”

“Okay,” Duo said, pulling a little black silk bag from his sock and handing it to her. 

She took it, dropped it into her robe pocket, like she’d just collected some illicit marshmallows. “I want your word that if you’re going make any drug, that you’ll run it by me first.”

“Okay, I promise,” Duo said softly, biting his lip. “It’s not harmful though. It’s modified so it’s not addictive.” 

“Be that as it may,” she said firmly, “What your teenaged brains need is sleep, not drugs. I can tell you’re having a good time and you also need that, so what we’re going to do is be in bed by 3am. I’m going to arrange for you to be late to school. Breakfast will be at noon.”

“But we’ll get detention for being late,” Relena said, staring up at her mom. 

“This is something that should have been thought of about four hours ago. Is your friend staying in the room across the hall?”

“Yes, Mama,” Relena said softly. 

“Duo you are going to sleep, right?” Maureen gave him narrow eyes. 

After a shifty look, Duo actually yawned. “I’ll try.” 

“Good. Cocaine is never the answer. It’s nice to see you all studying other cultures. Be in bed by 3 am. Are we good?”

“Yes, Mama.”  
“Yes, Ma’am.”  
“I guess.” 

“Wonderful. I love you both very much and I’m very happy to meet you Shelly. You’re welcome to stay in the guest room until your parents return, if you like.” 

“Thank you, Mrs. Darlian,” Shelly said shyly. “Do you like to read manga?”

Duo and Relena both turned to look at their friend with slightly wide eyes. Relena held her book close to her chest. “Mama doesn’t read manga.” 

“Of course I do,” Maureen said, as she bent down to catch up a couple of the books. “Sweet dreams, darlings.” 

By the time she swept out, her fur edged robe swirling as she proceeded to walk out the mother of a queen that she was.

Duo and Relena sat there, mouths and eyes open, books held to their chest, but Shelly was straight up hearts in her eyes. 

As soon as the door closed, she started breathing again. “I think I’m in love with your mom!”

The expression rolled over Relena, right onto Duo’s face. Wide eyes, twitching lip, slightly wrinkling nose. They both leaned back just a tiny bit, until Duo shrugged. “Well, she’s got my cocaine, so. I guess she’s single.”

“Oh my god,” Relena said hitting Duo with a book. “Don’t say that! Daddy!”  
Duo wrapped his arms around Relena, holding her close in a hug. “Come on, ‘Lena! He’s watching from heaven. He’d want’er to be happy, right? The love a beautiful woman shouldn’t be wasted!”

Relena nodded, wiping her nose on the sleeve of Duo’s hoodie that she was wearing. Her other hand reached out to catch Shelly’s hand and then they were all hugging until sleep started whispering at them. 

Eventually Relena and Shelly curled up in Relena’s bed. Duo pulled the covers over them and then scooped all the remaining books and danced back to his own room. 

Once there, he woke up his computer and started typing.

<><><>

Duo’s computer waking woke Heero’s alert and he rolled over, checked his mirrored screen with one eye open. Duo often had trouble sleeping and Heero just wanted to watch over him. 

What he saw, made him sit up, stare at the screen, eyebrows drawing down. 

“Then Shu ran his tongue slowly up Yuki’s cock, pressing hard against the vein, swirling his tongue slowly around the velvety head.....” 

Heero’s breath caught. 

Across the room, from his own bed, Wufei complained. “Light out! Stop working.”

“Do you know who Shu and Yuki are,” he hissed, “Duo’s writing a report about them and it’s very sexual.”

“Uh,” Wufei said, pushing up to his elbow. “How sexual?”

Heero looked back over his shoulder, the light of his screen casting his face in stark lines. “Very... sexual. Like he knows them... I think they are his lovers.” 

“What?” Wufei snapped and then he was on Heero’s bed, both of them watching lines of fanfic fill in while they think it’s a mission report of some kind. “I’m going to find them and kill them,” Wufei decided, about the time that the smaller of the men started saying that annal intercourse was hurting him. 

“Yes,” Heero agreed. If they’d touched his Duo like that, he might have to make it slow, but he really did have to work to keep from touching his own cock.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A social worker tries to remove Duo from the Darlian household. That doesn't go well. Maureen is mean.

Beneath: Gravitation 2/?  
by duointherain

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing

“Mrs. Darlian,” the social worker said with a cautious tone, “I am not going to approve your parenting plan. This child needs to be in a facility so that he can be given more effective structure. My goodness. You let him sleep in the back yard in a tent if he wants to. Did you think that letting him run around like Huckleberry Finn was a good idea?” 

They were in the solarium, which was Maureen’s favorite room. She sat in an authentic Queen Anne chair, sipping tea from a gilt teacup. “Well, then,” Maureen said, setting her teacup down. “I don’t take adopting someone lightly, you understand. He’s my son now.” 

The young man who had come into her home to do what he thought was his best for a boy he’d only met once, who sat there in a discount chain tie and off the rack slacks that were just slightly too long, nodded. In that moment, he felt relieved that she seemed to be understanding him. “His diagnosis are very severe. With reactive attachment disorder, acute PTSD, anxiety, an IQ in the range of 150 to 160, and a very odd socialization, to say the least, he professional help. As his adoptive parent, you do understand that right? You understand that he needs help you just can’t give him.” 

“I have also seen his diagnosis,” Maureen said, leaning back, smiling her best socialite smile, “and I am well aware that he is quite clever when he wishes to be. I think he’s doing very well here in my household.” 

“You’re not equipped to help him. He’s not taking his anti-depressant and he told the school therapist that if she touched him again he’d break her fingers. He’s violent and his conditions are untreated.” 

“Oh dear, I hadn’t known about a therapist at the school who was touching him. I’ll see that they are taken care of. Do you have their name? He doesn’t tell me everything, you understand.”

A shiver when down Sam’s spine. Words matter. He wasn’t sure that sharing the therapist’s name would be safe for the therapist. “You’re not distressed that he threatened someone?”

“Darling,” she said, her fingers templing as she smiled a decidedly threatening smile, “He’s a Darlian now. If I find out someone is touching him without his consent, I’ll do worse than break their fingers.” Her hands slide down so her palms touched, fingers posed elegantly. “Now let’s get to the important part. You are going to approve my parenting plan. You can do so and accept a nice gift from me for doing so or we can move onto a more serious discussion.” 

“Are you trying to bribe me? I’m certainly not going to approve your parenting plan nor accept a bribe.” 

“That’s unfortunate.” 

“I will give you the opportunity to improve your parenting plan. You will need to hire a mental health nurse to oversee his treatment, document his medication, improve your security so that he can’t just leave the house as he pleases, hire a private tutor and keep him out of school. He frightens the other children. There will be no more sleeping in the backyard. He will need to complete twice-weekly therapy sessions to help him successfully integrate into society. I am especially concerned with his non-standard gender expression.” 

Maureen picked up her teacup, leaned back, sipped again. “You have given this a lot of thought. I want you to consider we’re talking about an intelligence that broke into one of the most dangerous and secure facilities before he hit puberty. He has been in a great deal more combat than you are ever likely to be.”

“That is one of the deltas I’m talking about. You forget that he’s just a child, a feral and dangerous child, but a child nonetheless. You’ve developed an attachment to this child that you barely know and it’s clouding your judgment.” 

“It’s not me has clouded judgment. For instance, you think I’m a harmless dilettante who adopted a vulnerable child because I lead with my heart.” 

“That’s not what happened?”

“What happened might not be as important as what’s going to happen. If you could just please humor me for a moment. Please pull out your phone and check your account balance?”

“You are threatening me! I’ll have your other child removed from your home too!”

Maureen set her teacup down, clapped her hands. “Let’s just get to it then, shall we?”

From the corner of his eye, Sam saw a very pretty blond man step into the door frame. He leaned against the doorframe, arms across his chest like he was bored, or waiting. “I don’t care what you have to say! I’m going to do the right thing!”

“Duo is my people. He’s with his family. We are taking care of him. Now the best case for you is that you sign off on my parenting plan and the adoption completes without any problems. Your bank account gets a lovely, if slow and inconspicuous, increase in the range of $250,000. Alternatively, I will see that your bank account is empty, your lovely new master’s degree vacated for academic dishonestly, your citizenship of Earth revoked and you will be deported up to L2. I shall tell you know that Duo has a LOT of friends in L2 and they will all know that you are there because you threatened my son with institutionalization and forced medication that he didn’t need. I think that will be a very difficult path for you. Now are you going to approve my parenting plan, or shall I have my dear cousin Joel escort you from my property? I should also mention, if you think Duo’s violent, after you spend time in Joel’s company, you’ll see that Duo is just a sweet boy with some questionable hobbies.”

Paperwhite, hands shaking, “But he’s not being given the proper treatment! He will fail to thrive, ultimately. He needs help.” 

“You really do care about him, don’t you? Why?”

Sam covered his face with his hands, shoulders slumped. “I care because I do. He’s just a boy. I grew up with similar issues. I aged out of the foster care system and I believe he needs help.” 

“I assure you, Duo is loved and we are doing everything possible to help him thrive. Medication certainly does have its place in recovering from trauma as does structure and security. My home is neither unstructured nor lacking in medical attention. I have a physician on staff. Duo is in the best place to recover. He’s becoming happy and losing some of the wariness that he had. Duo is doing very well here. I don’t see why you don’t see it that way.” 

“If I sign off on the parenting plan, my director will fire me. I don’t know why.” 

“Oh,” Maureen said, with a genuine smile. “I can take care of that. What would you do if you could do anything you wanted?”

“I just want to help people.” 

“I think we can use a social worker in one or more of my charities. Sign the plan. I’ll take care of you.” 

“This is wrong.”

“But letting your director make your choices for reasons you don’t understand is right?”

“Uh.” Sometimes it’s just the frying pan that’s too hot, and the fire is just one big unseen. Sam pulled out the paperwork and signed. “Here. The facility the director wanted him isn’t a bad place you know? I don’t think anyone means him any harm.” 

Maureen accepted her copy of the paperwork. “Thank you so very much, Sam. Don’t let anything trouble you. You’ve done a very good thing today. Go home. Spend some money. My staff will be in touch.” 

“I really do like my job, but this wasn’t, this wasn’t how things are supposed to be.” 

“Don’t worry about anything,” she said as she stood, holding to a hand to shake.

After he’d gone. she motioned Joel closer. Duo had almost gone home with him, with the dangerous blond man. 

“Can I kill him?”

“No. He’s an asset now, but you can visit the director. I want to know who wanted Duo removed from my care.” 

Joel bowed very slightly. “As you wish.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heero comes to the wrong conclusion... he thinks bone crushing is in order... Wufei is like... Dude!

Beneath: Gravitation 3  
by Duointherain

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing

Heero held up the textbook propped on his desk, blue eyes switching between glaring over the top at the increasingly jumpy history teacher and glaring at his phone, which was still mirroring Duo’s laptop screen. Duo was in computer lab, but clearly not doing school work. Heero imagined being a great wolf and crunching through bone. 

Duo wrote, “And his kisses touched the back o’mah neck like the fluttery back blow of a shell, but no debris, just warm and soft, rustling the short hair on the back of my neck. His strong hands wrapped around me, holding me no matter what gravity did. Eiri really loves me! He really does!” 

Heero’s nose flared, lips twisting. His fingers clawed at the wood of his desk leaving a hash of claw marks. 

The professor lectured. Heero ground his teeth. He wasn’t going to hurt Duo, but this Yuki Eiri was going to get his bones broken into confetti! 

Wufei sighed finally, raised his hand. 

“Yes, Mr. Chang,” the clearly anxious teacher asked. 

“Heero and I need to go to the facilities.” 

“Yes, yes, of course. Take your time, Mr. Chang.” 

Chang Wufei closed his textbook delicately, keeping his place with a purple silk ribbon. His face was calm, academically serene, but he still grabbed Heero up by the scruff of the neck, grabbing the other boy’s phone and not even bothering when Heero’s textbook fell from the perilous heights of his desk. Genetically engineered problematic student or not, Wufei dragged his unhappy ass right out of the classroom. 

Once they were far enough from the door, Wufei hissed, “What is your issue, Yuy? You’re scaring the teacher!”

Heero growled inarticulately, crossed his arms over his chest, and ignored the tightness in his chest. “Duo is being intimate with some writer named Yuki Eiri! I didn’t find any books for him in the library or book store! It’s clearly an older man preying on younger and vulnerable man! But Duo likes it!” Heero’s face twisted up like someone had put a murder cherry up his nose.   
“Give me the phone,” Wufei demanded, not believing Heero much more than that. After scrolling down, shock softened his face, “Oh. Well. Then. Why are you spying on him?”

“I, uh, well, it’s just, I,” Heero said, trying to figure out how to justify something that Wufei clearly thought wasn’t right, but during the war there wouldn’t have been any concerns about spying. “I wanted to feel closer to him.” 

“So you’re jealous?”

“Uh,” Heero said, chin lifting as eyes searching the line where the wall met the ceiling like there was going to be an answer there. Jealous? Was he jealous of this Yuki Eiri for kissing his boyfriend? When did Duo become his boyfriend? Did Duo know that he was Heero’s boyfriend? Was Duo cheating on him? Maybe a little bone crunching would be helpful?

Wufei rubbed his forehead, shoving his glasses down just a little bit in the process. “Did you tell him how you felt about him? Like you and I talked about? You said you would tell him, out loud, with words, that you wanted to be romantically and sexually involved with him.”

“Oh,” Heero said, a long slow half sigh ‘oh’. “Um, maybe not.”

“Maybe you should do that,” Wufei said, eyes glarey wide as he pushed his glasses up. “If he says no and he wants to continue with this other Japanese fellow, then you have to respect that. He’s not a mech part you can just scavage and claim.” 

Heero’s mouth dropped open, full of outrage and denial, until well, there wasn’t anything to say to that. “I will tell him at lunch.”

“You might also want to stop mirroring his screen and spying on him. I recommend not telling him you did that.” 

“What if this Eiri hurts him?” 

“Have you met Maxwell,” Wufei teased, “He’s probably more dangerous than you are because he’s not as good at following orders.” 

“He’s not good at orders,” Heero said with a dreamy look on his face.

“At last! Something we agree on,” Wufei said, handing Heero’s phone back. 

<><>

After school, Duo ran into the house, headed straight for the stairs up to his room. 

“Duo!” Maureen called. 

“Hi,” he said, holding his travel laptop to his chest. 

“You haven’t been in trouble all week,” Maureen said, giving him the eye. “What are you up to?”

“I’m writing a story,” Duo said, nervous, chewing his lip, inching his way up the stairs. 

“That’s good. That’s a good thing to do.”

“It is?”

“Yes,” Maureen said happily. “Maybe I can see when you’re done?”

“Nope,” Duo said, shaking his head vigorously, before dashing up the stairs.


	4. oh no!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wufei tells Duo what Heero's been doing.  
Duo tells Wufei who Yuki Eiri is.   
Heero tells Wufei he's in love with Duo.  
Wufei decides he's had enough for one day.

Beneath: Gravitation 4/?  
by duointherain

disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing or Gravitation

“Please sit, Maxwell,” Wufei said, gesturing to the other side of the fancy wood table. 

Duo stepped into the small study room that was clearly decorated way beyond the regular rooms. It was fitted out for a Chinese prince gone slumming, Duo thought. “How you get all this stuff?”

Wufei, in elegant and traditional Chinese attire, glasses just a bit down his nose. “I’m a tutor. I’m assigned this room. I brought a few things from home. Sit down. We need to talk.”

With a sigh, Duo slung his backpack over the back of the chair and sat down, elbows on the table, chin in his palm. “Okay, Wu, what ya wanna talk about?”

“Drop the L2 patois, Maxwell. You are able to speak in perfectly standard English. You’re far from stupid. Why do you pretend you are?” 

“You’re not an imperial pig, but why do you pretend you are?” Duo rolled his eyes, wrinkled his nose. “Aside from insulting my heritage while we sit in a museum to yours? But fine, whatever, I can speak Standard English. Which, I should add, is neither of our native languages.”

Wufei leaned a little back, dark eyes wide, words a little slow in coming. “Heero is mirroring your screen and he thinks you’re having a sexual relationship with a man named Yuki Eiri.” 

Duo blinked half a dozen times as his thoughts ran in hamster circles. His lips twisted up, laughter demons clawing at his lips to get out. 

Wufei’s face twisted up. “Well, are you?”

Hands shaking, Duo finally gave into the laugh demons and rocked back and forth as he struggled to get up out of the chair while laughing so hard he could barely breathe. “Oh fuck, Wu! My odds of fucking you are higher than fucking Yuki.” 

Wufei’s face went pale. “I assure you, those odds can not be high.” 

“What’cha sayin there? Ya don’t wanna dick me?” The overwhelming laughter didn’t exactly make that a pitiful question. Duo pulled a couple of the Gravitation manga from his backpack and tossed them across the table to Wufei, before sinking down to the floor and giving into the laughing fit.

A knock on the door preceeded one of the teaching aids sticking her head in. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes, Ms. Walker. Everything is fine,” Wufei said, speaking as if he were the superior in the relationship, not some uppity high school student sorting out high school drama. 

“I just wanted to check,” she said, as she stared at Duo rolling on the floor. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, my tutee has just introduced me to the book he wishes to be reading this term,” Wufei said, making sure his arm covered both manga. 

“You ain’t mah fucking tutor,” Duo sputtered, still unable to control his laughter. 

“Oh is that Gravitation,” Ms. Walker asked slipping into the room to snatch up a book. “Oh! I love this! It’s classical literature! Excellent choice.” 

Duo had clawed his way back up to the edge of the table. “Wu wanted to know if I was having intimate relations with Yuki Eiri.” 

“But,” Wufei said, red faced and indignant, “You wrote...”

“Fan-fiction, Wu, It’s fanfic. Wanna see what I drew?”

“No,” Wufei said firmly. “Not even a little.” 

“I’d love to see your art,” Walker said, smiling. “You’re Duo, right? can I call you Duo?”

“What else would you call me,” Duo asked, fishing in his backpack for his sketchbook. “It ain’t safe for work.” 

“A lot of classic art isn’t either. As long as it’s not threating to anyone, it’s okay to share it with me.” 

“Great,” Duo said, sitting on the floor where he was more comfortable, legs tucked lotus style. He handed up his sketchbook. 

She sat down on the edge of the table to look at it. “Oh this is really good! We have art classes. Are you taking art classes?”

“They got classes about how to draw?”

“Absolutely. Talk to your advisor. They’ll see about getting you transferred into one.” 

“Really?” 

“Absolutely.” She smiled. “I really like this. You have a natural understanding of proportions and composition.” 

“Let me see,” Wufei said, holding out his hand imperiously. 

“No.” Duo reached out and took his book back, shoving it into his backpack. “You didn’t wanna see, so no seeie now. Thanks for letting me know about that other stuff, Wu.”

“You’re welcome, Duo. I always have your best interest at heart.”

Duo winked. “For an Imperialist Pig, ya not so bad.” 

<><><>

“Yeah, yeah, I know it’s strange, just write it for me, will ya,” Duo asked. 

Stanley groaned “You better never tell anyone I did this.” 

“Even if I did, they wouldn’t believe me. You do want that essay, right?”

“Yeah,” the bigger kid said with a groan, then he wrote out the note Duo had asked for. “My Dearest and Most adored Duo, 

My soul can not abide being parted from you in the least. Please tell me that you will marry me by the light of the moon on this the 16th of November! I will bring clergy. Please bring yourself to our spot and we will wedded ever after be!

Yours Eternally, 

Yuki Eiri”

Duo looked over the note, nodded. “Essay tomorrow. Thanks lots!” 

As soon as he had a moment to himself, he took a photo of the note, set it to his home screen, and turned his phone off. He’d already hacked into the carrier’s GPS data to make sure there was a ‘spot’ for Heero to find, then he waited. He pranced around the school the rest of the day, grinning like an idiot. 

<><>

Heero, on the other hand, was too sick to go to class, as he sat in his dorm, staring at the marriage proposal that ruined all his post-war meaning and ended his life as he knew it. Some blond writer had stolen Duo. Duo liked him. He was sure of it. Duo had been kind to him. Duo was the first and only one to see him as a person. Duo was the only one that mattered. He wished he’d died in Siberia. Duo was going to marry some fancy writer man. 

Sorrow ripped through him and he fell over, face down in his pillow and screamed. 

This was not something Wufei had ever considered preparing himself for. So he stood there in their shared doorway, trying to figure out what was wrong with his friend. 

“Heero?”

Heero pulled the pillow over his head. 

“What’s wrong? Was there some kind of terrorist attack? Are you dying?”

“No,” Heero whined as he came out from under the pillow and flopped there like a corpse. “Duo is going marry Yuki Eiri!”

Wufei pulled his glasses free, rubbed the bridge of his nose. With an exaggerated and long suffering sigh, he pulled a copy of the first volume of Gravitation from his pocket and tossed it at Heero. “Yuki Eiri is a fictional character from a classic graphic novel series made for women before this millennium even started.” 

“What?” Heero lifted his head, stared at the book, then sat up and started reading like it was his new mission. “What has Duo been writing then?”

Left hand up, one finger raised in a professorial pose, Wufei said, “I believe it’s called fan fiction. It is a story about homosexuals.” 

“Oh,” Heero said. “Duo is in love with me! Like I am with him!” 

“Oh,” Wufei said, wondering how he had not noticed such things beforehand and if he should seriously consider moving to a new room. Such thoughts only lasted for a few seconds before the next wave hit him. “YOU are in LOVE with ***MAXWELL***?!?”

“Why are you yelling?”

“Oh no reason,” Wufei said, pressing a finger to his temple. “I tired. I’m going to bed. Good night.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duo asks for advice...   
He gets to meet Aunt Myrtle.

Beneath: Gravitation 5/?  
by Duointherain

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing

“Hey,” Duo said standing so that he was only half way past the door frame. Duo looked like a regular kid in a school uniform, backpack over one shoulder, newly darkened shiner one one eye. “Talk for a minute?”

Maureen’s tea cup paused between the saucer and her slightly parted lips, before being set back down on the table. “Yes, of course, Duo, come in.” 

Two other women sat around the tea table with her, playing cards on the table as if they’d just paused between hands. “What happened to your eye,” an older woman asked, her whispy white hair up in a bun that reminded Duo of anime witches. 

“Aunt Myrtle!” The younger mini-me said with posh posh of her hand, “Don’t ask such things.” 

“Nonsense,” Aunt Myrtle snapped, leaning forward, elbows on the table, pointy little chin in her palms, dark eyes sparkling, “Was it over a girl?”

“Uh,” Duo said, teenage angst and expression racing across his face like rash. “No, Hank said some shit, so I tripped him, then he hit me. I can’t hit back. I’m still on probation.” 

“Well, at least you got him where it counts,” Myrtle said cheerfully. “I was on probation once.” 

“Oh Aunt Myrtle, you never were!”

The old woman grinned, white eyebrows wiggling. “Oh sweetie, before your time, but I once ran a man down for breaking my sister’s heart. Men are,” she said, letting her words drip with extra meaning like the blue blood lesbian that she was, “always so problematic. Don’t you think so too, Duo?”

Duo spun the empty forth chair around, straddled it, forearms folded over the back. “You think? I need advice! Aunt Myrtle, can I ask advice?”

“Oh my,” Maureen said, motioning for the servant to bring over a fourth teacup for Duo. “Oh goodness, Myrtle, how have you never told Tiffy about Bruce? If anyone ever had it coming....”

Tiffy gasped, a hand over her heart, “Aunt Myrtle, you were really on probation?”

“Five years,” Myrtle said, smirking, “But that was a great deal better than the manslaughter charge they tried to pin me with. “They made vehicular homicide stick, but gave me probation. It was all quite scandalous. Now, Duo, my dear, what advice could this old lady possibly give you?”

Tiffy sipped her tea, leaning back, avoiding looking at her aunt. “I’m not sure you should be giving advice, given that admission.” 

“See, there’s this boy and I like him,” Duo said, as he turned his chair back around and tried holding his teacup the way they were, making little faux sips of the nasty stuff. 

“Oh it’s like that, is it,” Myrtle said, reaching out to pat the table near Duo in support. “It was always that way for me too, but with girls.” 

“I still don’t think it’s natural,” Tiffy said, crossing her arms. 

“It’s normal for children not to be able to see past their own experience, but you’re a little too old for that,” Maureen snapped. “It’s perfectly acceptable to like who you like.” 

Duo did not understand family. He didn’t think he was ever going to. “Uh, yeah, so he was like spying on me and he thinks I’m fucking some older writer guy who isn’t real.” 

“Very hard to fuck them if they’re not real,” Myrtle said with a wink. 

“So my buddy told me about the spying and I set up a fake meeting, cuz I think the guy I like will come out and then I can confess to him. But,” Duo said, chewing his lip, “Like maybe I should be mad at him. Angelica says what he did was abusive and that I shouldn’t have anything to do with him or I can’t be a feminist.” Duo rubbed his non-black eye. “Tei said spying is a trust violation.” 

“It can be,” Maureen allowed, already knowing who Duo was talking about because Relena had been texting her all day long. “But do you feel it is?”

“No, like, I don’t hide nothing from Heero. I trust him, but I am a little annoyed he didn’t just ask me.”

“OH!” Myrtle said, “is this the same Heero that our ‘Lena was chasing after.” 

“Yeah,” Duo said, voice low and cringy because he felt bad for wanting something that Relena also wanted when only one of them could win. 

Myrtle laughed, wagging a bony finger at Tiffy, “See there?! I told you he was gay.” 

“But he has such pretty eyes,” Tiffy said with a huge sigh. “So what advice is it you want, Duo?”

“Do I have to be mad at him?”

“Darling,” Myrtle said, reaching out towards his hand, so that he reached back. “The universe has rules that we don’t know yet how to break, but there are no rules about what we feel. There are rules about what you can do because of your feelings, but no rule about what to feel. So you’re going to go to this place, meet your love, and confess. What do you think will happen?”

“He’s probably going to shoot me dead,” Duo said seriously. “He kinda owes me a couple of holes, but I kinda think he likes me too. He made me a real cool hand held scythe.”

“Which we are leaving in the vault until you’re both 18 and not on probation,” Maureen reinforced. 

“Yeah, yeah, but it’s safe and Heero still made it for me.” Duo smiled, reminding himself that he wasn’t gonna tell her about that bit of plutonium he came into unexpectedly. “I think he likes me enough not to kill me, but ya never really know with Heero.” 

“Of course he likes you; you’re a Darlian. Oh I had this lady friend who went to West Point. She was always a bit on edge. It was kind of sexy.”

“Yeah,” Duo said, grinning brighter, at the lady friend, having completely missed the Darlian part.

“He doesn’t sound like the kind of person who should be anywhere near Relena,” Tiffy decided, the look on her face clearly lumping Duo in with Heero.

“Naw, they get along alright. But should I just like go there and see if he comes, or should I message him and give him a heads up?”

“If there’s even a one percent change you’re getting shot, I don’t want you to go,” Maureen said

“Wait!” Tiffy said, leaning forward. “Is this the boy that got Relena intoxicated on LSD?”

“That was Dorothy,” Duo said, giving Tiffy a look that should have backed up a sane person, “But I was there. I don’t recommend it. LSD is shitty, but ecstasy is okay.” 

“Well, I never,” Tiffy said, scooting her chair a little farther away. 

“I think you should give him a heads up,” Myrtle said softly, and maybe take a chaperon. “I am available. I would love to meet the boy who makes you blush so.” 

“I ain’t blushing,” Duo said, a hand moving to his cheek to see if he could feel the color. “But uh, you think it’s okay for me to like.. you know, like like Heero, if like, you know maybe I should stay out of Relena’s way.”

“Nonsense,” Myrtle said. “If Heero is stalking you, he’s clearly made a choice. Besides, I think you like being stalked more than she would. Why don’t you just invite him over for dinner? You boys can retire to the garden and have a good talk.” 

Duo looked at Maureen, instinctively giving her big violet puppy eyes. 

“Oh of course, Duo, you know I’ll always welcome your friends into our home. I am much happier when you’re here than who knows where.” 

“Oh and I kinda borrowed the Shelby last night, but don’t worry, I’m gonna fix it right up! Good as new, by this weekend.” And with that he was off, running up the curving staircase three steps at a time. 

“He certainly does have a lot of energy,” Tiffy said. 

“You know we’re staying for dinner, right?” Myrtle said as she picked up her cards.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duo discovers things.   
Relena discovers things.   
Heero might be in over his head.  
Wufei doesn't appear, but he really likes his relaxation tea.

Beneath: Gravitation 6/?  
by duointherain

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing

Warning: This story is full of genderqueer and misunderstandings. 

Duo leaned back in his chair and reread Heero’s messages. There had just been enough lag with how fast Heero responded and it made Duo smirk happily. Heero had had trouble figuring out what to say. Heero was thinking about him. A lot. Duo’s smirk turned into a full solar power grin. He launched from his chair, dancing around, braid swirling. Wearing just boxers imprinted with the face of an ancient grumpy cat god, he danced over to his closet. 

Maureen had made sure there was lots of clothes he could use in there. He picked a pair of trousers with a black satin strip down the sides, a white button-up with a funny pointy collar, and the leather belt Zechs had sent him. It was kind of more of a holster and had been custom made to carry the little scythe that Heero had made for him. That he couldn’t lay hands on that scythe still irritated him, but not enough to really fight over it. 

He grabbed a towel out of his personal towel warmer on his way to his personal bathroom. For a moment, he worried that he was going to forget about poverty, forget about all the people still suffering, but that path didn’t go to far before he was undoing his braid and pretending it was Heero’s fingers untangling his hair. 

“Duo!” Relena yelled. “Where are you?”

“Bathroom,” Duo called back, pulling the door open with one foot. “What’s up?”

“Heero messaged me!” Relena said, smiling dreamily, her phone held to her chest, feet spread apart, pale blue dress swirling around her legs as if she just had so much energy that the world around her hadn’t caught up yet. 

Standing there on one foot still, wearing just boxers, braid half undone, Duo blinked, “That so? What’s he say?”

“He’s coming to dinner! He says he has something to tell me.”

“Oh look at your eye! What happened? Did you fall down?”

At that point Duo was feeling self-conscious about standing there like a dog with one leg up and nothing more than boxers on. “Maybe. What you think he wants ta tell ya?” 

There was a very slight edge of calculated in her expression, the way her eyes watched him, just enough to make Duo start to overthink. “Maybe he’s going to confess his feelings for me.” 

Duo rolled his eyes, lips twisting up. Confessing feelings could go a lot of ways. Feelings weren’t always love and fluffy bunnies. “Maybe he just wants to tell you he’s into me.” 

“Oh are you still into Heero,” Relena asked with all the innocence of puppy kisses. 

“‘Lena, I’m kinda naked. Can we talk about this later?”

“Look at you trying to be adult.” She stepped closer, right past his foot holding the door so that it closed leaving them in the bathroom together. She had some low heels on, but it still made her just a little bit taller than him. “I just want you to know, you have a zit right here.” She reached over to touch his cheek. 

His head rocked back and forth, lip lifting in a snarl. “Get out. I’m trying to shower here!”

“Okay, little brother,” she lifted her chin, spun on her heels, which clicked on the tile as she strode out, all of two steps, back into his bedroom. 

He made faces at the closed door for a moment, but after a low growl went back to working his braid loose. 

Relena stared at the door for a moment too. Duo wasn’t a bad brother and she loved him. Sometimes she thought that was duty, but most of the time she knew it was more than that. She admired him and cared what happened to him. She trusted him that like a big brother, he’d always come to her rescue. He was also stealing Heero right out of Relena’s happily-ever-after. Her mom, adopted mom, also really liked Duo. Duo was an adorable rescue puppy. In a bright spike of irrational irritation, Relena grabbed Duo’s clothes off the clothes horse and stalked out of the room. 

Back in the bathroom, Duo touched his face, head tilted in the mirror, as he tried to figure out what a zit was. Then there it was. It was red, round, maybe ten mm across, with an angry white center. Duo froze there, staring at it, his one blackened eye still squinting a bit. Had he had some radiation exposure? Poisoned? Maybe Hank had poisoned him!

All sorts of unpleasant possibilities dancing through his head, he ran out of the bathroom, down the hall, to the elevator that no one had told him about, but it wasn’t like he wasn’t going to find it. It was legitimately behind a six-foot-tall painting. He’d been down into the basement a couple of times and never gotten caught, so he knew that Dr. Martha had a lab down there. What if he was contagious! What if it was the Black Plague! His heart was through the roof as he raced down the textured metal floor towards the room with the light on in it. 

Martha looked enough like Maureen that he did believe they were related, but they were very different. Maureen was loving and sweet and always gracious. Martha was good at shit and had tools, but often acted like she really just wanted to dissect him. That expression was right up front when busted into her office. “I’m dying!” 

She looked up at him, face a kind of deadpan like fallen bread that was never going to rise. “Aren’t we all?”

“I mean like right now! I have.... Bubonic Plague!” 

“What are your symptoms, aside from barging into my office in your underwear?”

“I have this thing growing on my face! Maybe it’s cancerous?!” 

“Um,” Martha said, chewing air and disappointment. She still reached for a pair of gloves. “You recently had a puberty blocker removed. Your body is going to undergo changes.”

“What kind of changes? If death is one of’em, Ah Don’t WANT IT!”

“If you don’t calm down, I will sedate you,” Martha said, matter of factly. It wasn’t like they weren’t in her lab way under one of the fanciest houses with outrageous security. Informed consent wasn’t really Dr. Martha’s strongest feature. “Sit.” 

Duo did as he was told, bare feet perching up on the cold steel of the stool. 

“This is common acne, Duo. You will get more of them, then in a few years, they will go away. You will also experience increased sexual urges. Your voice will deepen. You will have a growth spurt. You may also feel increased urgency with aggression.” 

“Why,” Duo asked, horrified. “I mean, I’m real okay with getting taller, but I don’t need to want to kill nobody anymore than already do.” 

“It will still be your choice to remain a pacifist,” Martha said, but not with much praise. She gave the pimple on Duo’s face an expert squeeze and it gave up enough matter to make Duo’s face twist up. 

“Gross, but it’s not deadly.”

“Not even a little. You can’t kill someone with acne,” Martha said, sounding as if she’d actually tried. 

“Great, thanks. It’s okay if I come down here to do ... experiments and things?”

“Yes,” she said, “But clean up after yourself and don’t leave used vessels around. Nothing I’m doing needs any surprise MDMA added in.” 

“Yeah, okay, thanks,” Duo said, ready to run right back where he came from. “Also, maybe you got someplace I can safely store some plutonium? I’m not saying I exactly have some, but like if I did, you got safe storage?”

“The vault is three doors down, door on the north. It will recognize you and admit you.” 

“Thanks!” Duo actually had so much energy he bounced, then ran back up to the elevator. 

<><>

In her own room, Relena stood in front of her mirror, wearing Duo’s pants and his shirt. It was the strangest feeling, as if she could breathe for the first time without ever having known she couldn’t breathe before. She pulled her long hair back with both hands, stood up a little straighter and gave her image a steely-eyed stare. She wasn’t sure what this feeling was, but she liked it. He. He liked it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duo and Heero have a kiss, Relena finds out more about herself.

Beneath: Gravitation 7/?

by Duointherain

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing or Gravitation

Notes: I think Relena’s gonna be genderqueer, trans, who knows....I’ll have to write it and see. 

“What,” Duo asked as Relena stared at him. He stared right back. Now he knew where his clothes had gone. 

They stood at the top of the stairs. There were proper ways to make an entrance to dinner. Noone was watching, but things still had to be done right. Duo very much wanted to do things right. 

Relena’s hair was shorter, a little ragged. Duo couldn’t take his eyes off it. He was sure it meant something. Her eyes were blue like Heero’s and with that raggedy short hair, she was almost like a white Heero. He stood up a little straighter as profound discomfort froze him. “What... happened to your hair?”

She grinned, ear-to-ear teeth. “I cut it.” 

“Is it supposed to look like Heero’s? Cuz his looks like that cuz he ain’t got no sense of personal aesthetics.” 

“Put your hand on mine. I’m the brother today.” She held out her arm, clothed in his white tuxedo shirt and stared him down with those blue eyes. 

“Okay,” Duo half-whispered out the side of his mouth. “But.. I thought like being girls and boys was... important.”

“It is important,” Relena said, grabbing his hand and tucking it over her arm as if she were the boy. “Just go along with me. I go along with you and we end up destroying property. You can do this for me.”

“Sure,” Duo said, not really caring all that much. “Don’t rich people go to folk to get their hair cut?”

“Tomorrow and you’re coming with me. We’re going somewhere no one knows us and you’ll make them give me a boy’s hair cut,” she said as she guided him down the wide curving stair.

“Sure,” Duo said. “Is it hard to do?”

“I don’t know.” 

As they were midway down the stairs. the doorbell rang. 

“Heero’s coming,” Duo whispered, a huge July bright grin on his face as he tried to get his hand back from Relena’s arm. 

“I don’t,” Relena growled back, holding his hand in place for a moment, before he won free and ran down the stairs. “Have some dignity!” 

Duo spun around, still running down the stairs, made a face, tongue out of his mouth. He missed a stair, fell, twisting, until he threw himself over the banister, which lead to him sliding down on his belly for a moment before he managed to give a kick to the banister and summersault over the thing to land on his feet in the foyer. Arms out to the side, he grinned like a maniac. “And that’s how it’s done, baby,” he said, making finger guns at Relena. 

“Monkey!”

“Turtle!” Duo shouted back at her before running towards the door. He got there before staff did and pulled the door open with great enthusiasm. 

If it had been an anime, Heero’s hair would have been blown back by the wind generated by the door flying open and the radiation of energy coming off Duo. Instead, he just stood there, a bouquet of flowers in his right hand, a deer blinded by Duo’s energy. “Hi,” he nearly whispered. 

“Heero!” Duo cheered, jumping in place for a moment before throwing his arms around his friend. “I’m so glad to see you!”

Relena reached out for the flowers. “Are those for me?”

“No,” Heero said, pulling them out of her reach. “Mrs. Darlian. What did Duo do to your hair?”

“I didn’t do it!” 

“He didn’t do it!” 

“Okay. What happened to it? Why did you do it, Relena?”

“I,” she said, taking a step back, arms crossing over her chest. “I ... just wanted to.” A cloud squished up her face. “Does it look that bad?” 

“Naw, fuck no,” Duo said throwing an arm around her shoulder. “You look just like Heero and I fuckin love Heero.” 

Relena smiled shyly, batting her eyelashes at Heero, which made Duo uncomfortable and guilty because he should stand aside and that was probably better for Heero and he loved Relena now too and he didn’t deserve to be alive let alone loved and he didn’t now what to do. 

Heero was utterly oblivious the thick teenaged/trauma angst soup he was standing knee-deep in. All he heard was that Duo loved. His blue eyes went all full of hearts and his heart raced as his mouth went dry. Duo was so beautiful and brilliant. Duo’s smile made him light-headed. His whisper was so quiet it was almost just mouthed. “You do?”

Duo, who had never stopped watching every detail about Heero, was caught by Heero’s response, and went white as a sheet when he realized what he’d said and that he meant it and that he couldn’t lie and take it back. “Yeah, I love you.” 

Heero took a step closer, those blue eyes as wide as possible without shock about to set in, “In a sexual and a romantic way?”

“Yeah,” Duo whispered, his own heart racing. “You?”

“Yeah,” Heero said and they were now close enough that Relena was pushed back a bit. They just kept getting closer like gravity pulled them, binary stars. 

Relena tipped her head back, sighing silently. 

The boys paused, just millimeters from a kiss. 

“Just fucking kiss already!” She growled, making finger pistols at them. “I’m going to marry Noin!” 

Duo’s eyes shifted to the side, “What?”

That’s when Heero close the distance and kissed Duo. Fireworks exploded in Duo’s mind. Heero’s lips on his were the big bang, restarting the universe. Relena’s upset tore the universe in two. 

“Fuck my life,” Relena growled, arms thrown over her head. 

She strode into the formal dining hall, unescorted, as if she were a single male, and standing there in the doorway, her hair ragged cut and standing on end, her future husband back in the hall kissing her fucking brother, and she grinned, crooked and uncivilized. She’d never felt better. Fuck’em!


	8. Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duo and Heero confess again and become boyfriends. Relena and Maureen talk about Relena's hair cut and explore the idea of Relena being trans.

Beneath: Gravitation 8/8  
by duointherain

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing

With everyone seated at the table, dinner served, and everyone silently thinking about Relena’s hair, Duo was 900% sure he didn’t know what to do with any of this. He sat next to Heero and to be honest, he was more interested in seeing if he could brush his knee against Heero’s knee than he was in Relena’s hair. 

After a good ten minutes of mangled silence and fork clicks, Maureen cleared her throat. “This is awkward. “Duo will you please accompany our guest to the rose garden? Dinner will be served again out there for you both. Myrtle, I know you prefer the card room. Tiffy, please go with your Aunt.” 

Tiffy bit her lip for a moment, set her fork down politely. “I’m dying to know what happened.”

“I’m sure Relena will tell you when she has a moment. I’m sorry dinner is becoming fragmented, but we’ll all try again for breakfast. You are excused.” 

Relena also stood, sliding an apple into Duo’s pants pocket, which she was still wearing.

“Relena, you stay, please.” 

“I’d rather not, actually,” she said, avoiding eye contact. 

“Right here, by me, if you please.” 

With a great put upon sigh, Relena moved her plate. “Fine. It’s nothing. It’s just a whim.” 

“A whim which we will be discussing presently.” 

Duo, on the other hand, had no issues moving to the rose garden, alone, with Heero. As soon as they were out of the dining room, Duo kind of slyly held out his hand, just in case Heero wanted to hold it. 

Heero did want to hold Duo’s hand, but it took him another moment to get up the nerve. By then Duo had pulled his hand back, so Heero had to reach for it. He grabbed hold like he was keeping Duo from falling, though it might have been himself that felt like he was falling. 

This brought them both to a stop in the empty hall. “You wanna be my boyfriend?”

“Yes,” Heero said firmly. “What does it mean?”

“I don’t know,” Duo said, shrugging, “But we can figure it out. I think it means we like to kiss and make out and like eat lunch together, probably fuck. Do you like fucking?” 

“I don’t know. Do you?”

Duo shrugged again. “I don’t know, but I sure think about it a lot.” 

“But you’re not fucking an older blond man?”

“He’s not real, Heero. He’s just a guy in a comic I like.”

“I want you to be more than just a hole when I have the urge,” Heero said, almost a whisper. “I don’t like how he treats Shuichi. I want to be better than that for you.” 

“It’s just a story, Heero. Can I kiss you?”

“Yeah,” Heero said, instinctively leaning closer. “I saw this video of these two women kissing and they just looked like they both wanted to kiss so badly. They were wearing scarves and they had to pull them down. I wanna kiss like that.” 

“We could put napkins over our faces, first,” Duo said, wanting to make Heero’s fantasy come true, but he also really just wanted to touch his lips to Heero’s to feel his warmth, to feel something that he didn’t have the words for. His lips touched Heero’s and a spark of excitement danced through him. 

Heero actually trembled under the touch, a hand reaching out to touch Duo’s face, to brush through Duo’s bangs. He pulled back from the kiss and stared into Duo’s eyes, searching for some kind of reassurance. “I think I love you, the kind of love that is the only love and I’ll love you as long as I live.” 

“Good,” Duo said, heart made of butterflies. “Yes, please.” 

<><><>

Relena and Maureen sat at the table, eating quietly. The salad came and went. The main course was halfway through when Relena put down her fork. “I took Duo’s clothes and I cut my hair.” 

“Why?” Maureen asked. 

Words jumbled together without meaning. Finally, staring down at her half-eaten dinner, tears running down her face, she said, “I don’t know, but it made me happy.” 

“My darling,” Maureen said, reaching out to wipe away tears. “That is all that matters. We shouldn’t take Duo’s clothes, but we can get you clothes that you want no matter what they are. If you want short hair we can do that. We will follow whatever path makes you happy.” 

“What if I want to be a boy,” Relena whispered. 

“If you’re a boy, you’re a boy. I love you the same whatever comes, my darling.” 

“When I was cutting my hair, I was just so happy. I didn’t even know how unhappy I was before until I started doing it! Why didn’t I know about this before? Shouldn’t I have known... like always?”

“Of course not,” Maureen said, gently wiping at Relena’s face with a soft cloth napkin. “Do you think people knew Newton’s Laws of Motion before he wrote them down? Just because something’s true does not mean it’s obvious. That doesn’t make it any less true. You have to explore inside yourself and see what makes you happy.”

“What if I want my name to be Sam? Can I be Sam?”

“If you like, Sam. Sam, hand me the salt please?”

Relena grinned happily and handed over the salt. “I like it! But everyone knows me as Relena and that’s the name my birth mother gave me. I don’t have much from her. I don’t even remember her.” 

“What if your name was Rey? Just short for Relena, but it sounds masculine.” 

“Rey. Ray. I like that too, but I think I like Sam more.” 

“Well, think on it for a couple of days. A name is very important.” 

“What if my friends hate me?”

“Then they weren’t very good friends.” 

“Heero doesn’t like me that way, you know?”

“Yes, I know,” Maureen said, “But if we got everyone we were attracted to, we’d have way too many. It’s better to keep seeking until one finds that mutual pull.” 

“I really liked him,” Relena said, poking her mashed potatoes with her fork. “I just really thought we’d make a cute couple and everyone would like us and it would be like we were both heroes.” 

“You don’t need a romantic interest to be a hero, Sam. You’re already brave and heroic. Honestly, there is more to be had than just being a cute couple. How about you stay home from school tomorrow. We’ll go shopping, get you a new haircut, get some new clothes. We’ll go get coffee and you can give them your name of choice and see how it feels?”

“Okay,” Relena said, holding out her hand. Maureen laid her hand over Relena’s holding her tight. “I love you, Mom. Thank you.” 

“It is entirely my pleasure. Now let’s finish off these pork chops, as we don’t have to share.”


End file.
